Patiala GMC awaits Centre’s nod to import O2 plant from Germany
: With the entire infrastructure in place, Government Rajindra Medical College and Hospital is awaiting the Centre’s nod to order mobile oxygen generation plant from Germany.
The hospital has come up with a proper infrastructure worth ₹84 lakh for setting up the plant, which would not only cater to its oxygen needs but of other medical institutions too.
“We will make the plant operational in two days if we get the required equipment for producing oxygen as all other prerequisites are already in place at the hospital,” said hospital’s medical superintendent Dr HS Rekhi.
Notably, a similar plant will be set up at Government Medical College and Hospital, Amritsar.
He added that the proposed plant will be able to produce 20,000 litres of oxygen.
Meanwhile, one of the officials said the state government has already sent the file for approval to Centre, but has not received any response yet.
“After a go-ahead, an order will be placed for the import of oxygen generation plant as the formalities have been completed so far,” he said.
Following the increase in demand of medical oxygen in state hospitals due to the sudden surge in Covid cases, even chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has urged the Centre to immediately facilitate setting up the plant. With the influx of Covid patients at Rajindra hospital, the authorities are claiming that there is no dearth of oxygen supply as they have sufficient storage of liquid medical oxygen.
Medical superintendent Dr Rekhi said presently, the hospital has 12,000 litres LMO plant and small oxygen generator having capacity of 6,000 litres.
“Around 250 patients are presently admitted in the hospital and all are provided with the required oxygen needs. Moreover, we have also kept an oxygen tank on standby in case of emergency,” he said.
Faridkot hospital plant a boon for Malwa districts
Amid shortage of medical oxygen supply across the state, the newly set up oxygen generation plant at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital (GGSMCH), Faridkot, is helping a great deal in catering to the critical Covid-19 patients from seven south Malwa districts.
The plant producing 1,000 litres of oxygen per minute was setup under the central government project and became operational in the first week of April. It has a storage capacity of 10 MT and the unit is directly connected with the oxygen supply system of the hospital from where it is transferred through pipelines to all the wards.
GGSMCH is providing care to critical Covid patients from Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Moga, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Faidkot districts. Following the surge in virus cases, the hospital’s daily oxygen requirement rose to 6 MT. Earlier, all the liquid oxygen was supplied from Haryana through tankers, but now GGSMCH is generating 2-2.5 MT oxygen every day.
In October last year, to augment the supply and distribution of oxygen amid the pandemic, the state government had planned to install oxygen generation plants and storage tanks in all three government hospitals at Faridkot, Amritsar and Patiala.